VeganShifthttp://demo.veganshift.org
Sustainable societies for symbiotic living for all EarthlingsThu, 14 Dec 2017 02:28:17 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.4http://demo.veganshift.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/favicon.pngVeganShifthttp://demo.veganshift.org
3232Doo-Dah Parade 2017 was a big success!http://demo.veganshift.org/2017/07/13/doo-dah-parade-2017-was-a-big-success/
http://demo.veganshift.org/2017/07/13/doo-dah-parade-2017-was-a-big-success/#respondThu, 13 Jul 2017 01:56:49 +0000http://demo.veganshift.org/?p=967We had over 50 vegans out for the Doo-Dah Parade, representing both 300 Vegans and VeganShift! See some pictures below taken by photographer Samuel Hartman.

Samuel Hartman, who is a CrossFit coach, vegan athlete, and musician based in Columbus, OH. He is passionate about showing others that you can be strong and healthy on a vegan (100% plant-based) diet!

Also presenting will be Rafael Simo, founder of the fantastic vegan latin fusion food truck “Sobremesa” Street Kitchen”. He will delight our attendees with a demonstration of a delicious vegan latin fusion recipe.

In addition to the presentations we will have fantastic vegan food samples from other local eateries! More details to come!

Be sure to arrive at the park early, parking is always difficult in the short north and walking across the park can be distracting, take more time than you expect, and people get confused about which stage is “The Solar Stage” because several stages are now powered by solar and they don’t often realize that. There is also a bicycle corral for those who decide to bike. We look forward to seeing you there, bring your non-vegan friends, family, co-workers, church community and of course, your fitness and athletic associates!

THE SOLAR STAGE is in the South West corner of the park along Dennison Avenue (about 200 yards from the south east corner of the parking lot that is located by the tennis courts.)

A Vegan Man: https://www.facebook.com/aveganmantroop/
Adventures of a Military Wife: https://www.facebook.com/VeganMilitaryWife/?fref=ts Military Vegan: https://www.facebook.com/Military-Vegan-248938500059/?fref=ts
Vegan Veteran Blogs
A Vegan Man: www.aveganman.com
Adventures of a Military Wife: http://veganmilitarywife.com
MilitaryVegan: https://militaryvegan.wordpress.com/

Vegan Military/Veteran Youtube

Alex Contreras Vegan Survival Guide: MILITARY EDITION https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyKl9Zrf3ts&feature=youtu.be
How to be Vegan in the Military: Sgt. Alex Contreras by Bite Size Vegan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3LlnBhafhU&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_1843229391&src_vid=gyKl9Zrf3ts

Relevant Articles

Being a Vegan Soldier and the Challenges They Face: http://news.therawfoodworld.com/vegan-solider-challenges-face/
Being Vegan in the Military: http://livevegan.org/index.php/meatout-mondays/item/being-vegan-in-the-military#.Vx_UPJMrJp8
Relevant Facebook Notes and Images

]]>http://demo.veganshift.org/2016/04/26/vegan-veterans-military-do-exist-check-out-these-resources/feed/0The Art of Listening by Marla Rose of Vegan Streethttp://demo.veganshift.org/2016/04/14/the-art-of-listening-by-marla-rose-of-vegan-street/
http://demo.veganshift.org/2016/04/14/the-art-of-listening-by-marla-rose-of-vegan-street/#respondThu, 14 Apr 2016 15:27:00 +0000http://www.veganshift.org/media/the-art-of-listening-by-marla-rose-of-vegan-streetThankfully, there are some exceptionally outstanding voices of reason leading the vegan movement, Marla Rose of Vegan Street is one of them. Thank you Marla for this important contribution to give our collective voice a grounded standard worthy of emulating.

The Art of Listening (Or Your Allies are More Important Than Your Ego)…

“The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.” – Stephen Covey

About a month ago, I observed of one of those little dust-ups that happen fairly often on Facebook. It happened when someone high up with a respected animal advocacy organization was questioned by others about his use of a derogatory term, usually used against women, to insult other vegans whose strategies irritated him. This was on his personal time, not in his official capacity with the organization, but because he’s a fairly high-profile individual and it was publicly said in a way that could be easily shared, it was. Social media being what it is, for better or worse, he was quickly called out for the way he used this term and given the opportunity to make a reasonable case for using it, apologize or dig his heels in and refuse to listen. He chose the last option.

To be fair, I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean to be offensive or sexist. I have never met him in person but my impression is that he is a good guy and he’s one who devotes his time to building a more compassionate world. He is very gifted at what he does. That said, when he was – in my opinion – gently questioned about it, he lashed out in a pretty disproportionate way, not only listing all the ways in which he personally is oppressed by society – mentioning his sexual orientation and his ethnic background – as proof that he could not be sexist (???) but he also chose to dig his heels in and refused to entertain the idea that it was worth considering the voices of those who had differing views. He went further, implying that anyone who had anything to say about the subject that wasn’t supportive of his viewpoint was petty and ineffective. Despite what I felt were some very reasonable points to consider, he basically wrote off anyone who had an opinion to share that contradicted his own as a humorless, unproductive hater and huffed away.

The thing is, I absolutely knew where he was coming from and I empathized with his situation. Nobody likes to feel ganged up on and even when people are pretty careful about not demonizing one another, we can overreact when we feel like we’re under attack and that people are judging us, which is especially amplified by when it happens on a social media platform. With our increased capacity to interact with one another virtually, we also have a potential powder keg that can turn what should be civil disagreements into flame wars that become much more personal, messy and hurtful.

I understand as well as anyone how uncomfortable it is to admit mistakes and apologize. There is almost nothing that sets me off more than feeling like I’m being lectured and nitpicked. I get irritated and angry. When those uncomfortable feelings arise, which is at least a few times a week at this point due to having an active presence on social media, this is when it’s really vital for me to take some deep breaths, step away from my reactive self, and, with my ego removed as much as possible, ask myself if there something of merit and consideration in what is being said to me. I will also ask someone who is more neutral about it, like John, for his thoughts and many times he lets me know that I am overreacting.

Often it is baseless and just part of the social media landscape of, yes, bored people who are looking for something to attack. That is certainly always a distinct possibility. Sometimes it’s not, though. Sometimes there is something valid there. I’ve learned through observing that when people tell you that the words you used are offensive and this is why, these people and their thoughts deserve your consideration. Dismissing the voices of those who care enough to try to bring something they care about to your attention smacks of a conceited, callous attitude.

Years ago, I first became disillusioned with a vegan I once considered a hero because of the arrogant and condescending way that he dismissed anyone who disagreed with a term he created to describe our society’s confused and inconsistent treatment of other animals. It was an expression that he coined that found its basis in a specific mental illness and he applied it in moral terms. It didn’t bother me at first – it seemed to be an accurate descriptor and I had no quarrel with it – but as people who either have or care for those who suffer with this specific condition voiced their opposition to his use of the term and the way he used it, I was so turned off by his defensive and mocking response that I couldn’t help considering more of what they had to say. What they said made me more aware that mental health is a massive privilege that I take for granted; how might I feel if I saw a condition of mine treated like just another a tool in a toolbox to make a point? Might I be offended? Might I be justified in being offended? I had to answer yes to those questions. Through that new lens, seeing this man lash out and continue to deride peoples’ thoughts on a subject that didn’t affect him personally set the wheels in motion for me to scrutinize more of his interactions with the public. With that new perspective, I could see that the traits that I once perceived as confidence and honesty could also be interpreted as cockiness and meanness. It wasn’t long before this man was no longer a hero to me.

Since then, I have seen many examples of vegans refusing to budge when asked to be considerate to less advantaged populations and, time and time again, I have seen many who fail to meet the bare minimum of what one should expect, defaulting instead to white, ableist and patriarchal standards. Even worse, I have seen them treating the people who dare to speak up like impudent insubordinates for having the audacity to question their authority. If that’s not reinforcing unjust power structures, I don’t know what is because…

* When we tell people of color that their genuine challenges to veganism, often due to lack of access, time and financial resources, are petty and selfish, they are being told to shut up and deal with it. They are being told that their real lives don’t matter.

* When we tell women that they are being self-absorbed if they speak up about objectification and misogyny in the vegan sphere, they are also being told that their lives don’t matter. I don’t know if sex sells, but I do know that sexism sells out a movement.

* When we assert our intention to use every tactic is on the table if it might possibly sway some people despite negative personal and long-term consequences, we are saying that we care more about tacticsthan individual lives. As with the detractors above, these people are told that they need to stop whining and get in line.

I believe that the people who refuse to acknowledge the importance of caring for and about one another are setting themselves up for irrelevance. An inability to understand and appreciate the value of respectful, real allyship will ultimately ensure their obsolescence but I hope that too many people don’t become isolated in the process.

As a writer, words matter to me deeply. I am protective of them and I take great pleasure in the delicious variety available to me. At the same time, as a writer who is also a vegan and an activist, I care about being effective and a considerate, reliable ally more than I care about individual words. If I learn that something I’ve said is unintentionally harmful, I can adapt. There are many words out there including, “I’m sorry. I hadn’t thought about that. Let me try again.” There are many options. My guess is that if you want to write off any critique as the “word police” coming after you, your advantages are clouding your ability to understand your own privileged status and clouding your ability to empathize. You need to take a step back. You need to learn that an honest apology isn’t the worst thing in the world.

When people tell us something matters to them, we should listen. Most important, we should hear.

]]>http://demo.veganshift.org/2016/04/14/the-art-of-listening-by-marla-rose-of-vegan-street/feed/0Aim High, Arnold with Vegan Options Daily!http://demo.veganshift.org/2016/03/18/aim-high-arnold-with-vegan-options-daily/
http://demo.veganshift.org/2016/03/18/aim-high-arnold-with-vegan-options-daily/#respondFri, 18 Mar 2016 21:28:00 +0000http://www.veganshift.org/media/aim-high-arnold-with-vegan-options-dailyThis message was originally published and delivered on March 18th 2016.

We shall see if he does adopts any of the suggestions. Original post is here:

Dear Former California Governor, Bodybuilding Fitness Icon, and Hollywood Blockbuster Movie Star, Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger,
VeganShift is pleased to hear you acknowledge that those who seek an awesome physique and fitness level can thrive and reach gains while consuming a 100% plant-strong vegan diet. We are positively impressed that you have also chosen to weigh in on the critical conversation of the climate change crisis. The documentary film, Cowspiracy, has skyrocketed the collective consciousness of this glaring and most pressing omission that animal agriculture is the leading human activity contributing the pollution and deforestation driving climate change. A foundational vegan shift in consciousness and behavior is the single-most, far-reaching and effective action in the climate change solutions mix, yet it is not presently even offered as a solution by mainstream climate change and environmental and/or wildlife conservation organizations. In addition, AUM Films follow-up film, “What the Health?” was just released and “Plant Powered Nation”, “Forks Over Knives”, and “A Delicate Balance” have all exposed the fantastic health implications of a body powered by plants. The documentary films, “Earthlings”, and “Unity” make the crucial and greater connection to the complexity that is vegan consciousness.
Speaking as a desert storm era US Air Force veteran, my branch of service slogan was “Aim High”. Your dynamic accomplishments demonstrate that you are unequivocally an “Aim High” kind of guy. Surely you would never suggest to those who come to your Arnold Fitness Classic event to “Aim low.” With all due respect, your recent public declaration that “People will buy into supporting Meatless Mondays” could go much further in addressing the actual scope of the problem. Meat is not the problem. Animal Agriculture extends well beyond meat production. Speciesism, enabling animal use as property, which ultimately established animal agriculture, is the problem. Our entire social foundations are built on the backs of animals to the degree that even the sidewalks contain pig bones. While change is indeed most often incremental, wouldn’t you agree that the ask must be for the actual necessary goal we seek? When “The Arnold” talks, people listen. People can, will and do “buy into” a vegan shift when framed correctly and empowerment policy and programs are provided. A Vegan Options Daily policy ensuring equivalently delicious and nutritious vegan foods, and functional, plant-based alternative products are available, affordable and accessible everywhere is the message framing and infrastructure development that can ultimately empower a rapid world vegan shift.
Your expo is now on every populated continent on Earth. Please, ask those you have the power to influence globally to “Aim High” and heal our home with a clear, simple and easy, step-by-step vegan challenge, instead of asking them to “Aim low” with a “Meatless Monday” suggestion that does not get to the root of the disconnected, systemically violent and unsustainable climate change causing behaviors. We must ask everyone to aim for a vegan goal and build the bridges and pathways to a brighter and better future with peace, consciousness, consistency, strength, honor, and integrity. There are several websites and resources attached below for your convenience. Finally, we are more than happy to assist you in implementing a successful vegan empowerment program and we have even drafted a Vegan Options Daily Resolution that is ready for roll out everywhere. Thank you in advance for your support.
“Aim High,” Arnold with Vegan Options Daily!
With love, hope and respect,
Eriyah Flynn
Founder

]]>http://demo.veganshift.org/2016/03/18/aim-high-arnold-with-vegan-options-daily/feed/0Appeal To Bill McKibben of 350.org from Vegan Shifthttp://demo.veganshift.org/2016/02/19/appeal-to-bill-mckibben-of-350-org-from-vegan-shift/
http://demo.veganshift.org/2016/02/19/appeal-to-bill-mckibben-of-350-org-from-vegan-shift/#respondFri, 19 Feb 2016 05:00:00 +0000http://www.veganshift.org/media/appeal-to-bill-mckibben-of-350-org-from-vegan-shiftThis letter was handed directly to Bill McKibben and the subject briefly discussed at an event in Columbus, Ohio in Nov 29th, 2011. The original publishing of this correspondence was immediately aired on a Facebook Note here: https://www.facebook.com/notes/eriyah-flynn/appeal-to-bill-mckibben-350org-by-eriyah-flynn-founder-of-veganshift-columbus-oh/10150426079393290

Dear Bill,

You may remember me: my name is Eriyah Flynn, and I have traveled to stand beside you, and the many activists in this room, in WDC two times in as many months in protest of the Keystone XL pipeline. The Columbus activist community, including Alec Johnson, Bob Fitrakis, Harvey Wasserman, Jason Box and Andrew Sidesinger, and many others can attest that I have been a long time, ardent, engaged and committed environmental and social justice activist. I am also a US Air Force Veteran and yet, most importantly, while doing all of this for over a decade, I have also been a vegan. Because being vegan is the LEAST I can do as a political statement of justice and non-violence towards the weakest among us who are at our mercy, and the MOST effective single discipline that can be done to reverse the path of insanity of unsustainable behaviors our species has waged against our planetary home. Being vegan does not require risk of arrest, can be extremely healthy, affordable, and can be done by everyone, NOW.

Livestock production is the 10,000 year stain on humanity’s code of so called civilized behavior, and as our population has ballooned over the last 80 years from 2 billion in 1930, to over 7 billion people in 2011; According to two reports, “Livestock’s Long Shadow” (UNFAO) and “Livestock and Climate Change” (World Watch Institute) Livestock production is now THE LEADING human cause of pollution, deforestation and ecocide causing climate change, vastly exceeding world transport. We have known this since 2006. Ecological scientists have been sounding the alarm that we have entered the 6th great extinction period on Earth. You spoke of severe energy and water scarcity and the impending loss of productive crops. Based on these facts, a vegan in a hummer does more to save the planet than a non-vegan on bicycle. The continued omission of these facts is absolute negligence contributing to our collective peril. The vegan community has been waiting since 2006 (and before) for the environmental community to acknowledge the most basic scientific empirical fact that consuming lower on the food chain is the most efficient way to live, as well as a hemorrhaging social justice issue desperate to be recognized since the times of Socrates.

If reducing the negative impacts of climate change is truly your salient objective and the situation is as dire as you depict, the environmental community must finally make the intellectually honest commitment and demonstrate the courage to get the elephant of veganism in the room, on the table of awareness, clearly, in the campaigns your organization (and other environmental, conservationist and social justice organizations) commissions going forward. A survey of your organization’s membership would likely reveal significant numbers of vegans who also support this moral/ethical obligation and are equally confounded by this continued, weak inconsistency. Embarrassingly, climate change deniers wield this fact as leverage to marginalize our unified environmental sustainability cause and charge “hypocrite”. Gain legitimacy for our mission and make a pledge to go vegan, make it fun and issue a “go vegan” challenge to your membership. I am available for support, and I have enclosed with this letter, several documents that will assist you in this process (BTW- they are contained in an algae based plastic binder made by a local company called Univenture), and I have provided links below to these resources as well within an electronic document that will be forwarded to you directly.

My parting mental picture is an analogy of abolition: If the animals in today’s system of exploitation were the Jews in Hitler’s concentration camps, or the slaves of our nation’s plantation owners, which side of history would you want to be on? The side of the cowards, whiners and excusitarians who were too afraid or apathetic to make a stand, or would you choose the side of the courageous that dared pull up their boots, show some discipline and urgently challenged the most powerful and dominant forces of injustice, violence and death?

I think you and I know the answer to that. They are not “a condiment” Mr. McKibben, they are individuals who deserve to be free of exploitation, and as you have so cogently and eloquently detailed in your plea for action, you know there is a lot more at stake than just our palate’s preference. Lead as I know you can. The earthlings who share this planet are counting on you to live up to your potential.

Love life, live vegan!

Eriyah Flynn

Founder

Vegan Shift

“Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, Is it politic? Vanity asks the question, Is it popular? But conscience asks the question, Is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him that it is right.” Dr Martin Luther King Jr., 1929-1968

Issue a “go vegan” challenge; ask membership to pledge to at least try it for 30 days.

In all of your correspondences end with a statement that the most basic scientific empirical fact is that consuming lower on the food chain (plants) is the most efficient way to live, that the present demand for livestock products is the leading cause of the energy consumption and environmental pollution, deforestation and ecocide and that a vegan shift in thinking foundations would also alleviate many of the social justice issues we are suffering

Link your website and correspondence to websites that offer vegan transition tips, recipes and provide more detail on the importance (see links below)

]]>http://demo.veganshift.org/2016/02/19/appeal-to-bill-mckibben-of-350-org-from-vegan-shift/feed/0Cowspiracy Spreading the Vegan Virus?http://demo.veganshift.org/2015/10/02/cowspiracy-spreading-the-vegan-virus/
http://demo.veganshift.org/2015/10/02/cowspiracy-spreading-the-vegan-virus/#respondFri, 02 Oct 2015 18:48:00 +0000http://www.veganshift.org/media/cowspiracy-spreading-the-vegan-virusHere is an article that in spite of its rude headline (Vegan Virus?) had some encouraging words about the effectiveness of the documentary film, Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret.

We were compelled to make the following comment on a statement within the article:

Article Highlight:

“Committed carnivores admit to avoiding it in case it puts them off eating meat.”

Response:

FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real

“Committed Carnivores” actually deserve to be called out for their abdication of responsibility as global citizens on nation Earth for avoiding becoming informed. Willful ignorance merely because their conscience might actually be capable of overriding their self-serving, violent, addiction, or that enables a continued apathy to muster behavioral change for the greater good of the people, the planet, and the animals is unacceptable. A vegan shift in behavior is actually the responsible and rational reaction to becoming informed of the systems driving our collective destruction.

Humans are NOT carnivores at the best grasp at straws- they are behavioral omnivores that actually thrive best on plants, sun and a B12 supplement (because modern homo sapien sapiens generally no longer wipe with leaves and eat with their hands – effectively eat their natural source of b12 – bacteria that is common in excrement). Even that language (carnivore/omnivore) requires a reality check, not a continued re-enforcement of the collective entitled ego and superiority complex that has gotten us to this culture driving ecological collapse and 6th global extinction level event as 150-200 species die off forever, daily- 1000 times the natural rate of extinction.
Note: This is the first extinction actually created by the insanity and ego driven denial of species indigenous to the planet.

FACT: Vegans don’t live a life of stinking deprivation. They live a life consistent with universal ethics & values (peace, love, kindness, truth, justice, liberty and the right to pursue happiness for all earthlings) and consume delicious, healthier (for self and ecology) sustainable, nonviolent, alternatives. They live a life of adventure and discovery with new, delicious, healthier, sustainable, consistent-with-their-ethics alternatives for the foods and products they know, crave and love so much. Culture, tradition, economic infrastructure can be, rather, MUST be URGENTLY modernized and adapted for the reality that we have 7.3 billion people and growing everyday.

Empowerment: Delicious recipes for Meat, Dairy and Egg alternatives can be found at www.thegentlechef.com

Since when does a destructive taste preference, culture, tradition, personal freedom, corporate interests, habit or addiction ever trump personal responsibility and commitment to social justice for continued survival for ours, and future generations on earth?

Time to get real.

Vegan is more than a diet. Vegan is more than a lifestyle. Vegan is a consciousness, a compass grounded in empathy that determines an ethic that guides all behavior.

]]>http://demo.veganshift.org/2015/10/02/cowspiracy-spreading-the-vegan-virus/feed/0The Politics of Extinction by Captain Paul Watsonhttp://demo.veganshift.org/2015/07/06/the-politics-of-extinction-by-captain-paul-watson/
http://demo.veganshift.org/2015/07/06/the-politics-of-extinction-by-captain-paul-watson/#respondMon, 06 Jul 2015 04:00:00 +0000http://www.veganshift.org/media/the-politics-of-extinction-by-captain-paul-watsonThis essay by Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ranks as one of the most compelling essays I’ve read on exactly what has been wrong with American and other national politics for quite some time. Frankly, we are running out of time as the rate of extinction has been 1000 times the natural rate- to the tune of 150 – 200 species going extinct daily- due to humanity’s arrogance and disconnect with our unconscious and inefficient behaviors at population 7.3 billion people and growing.

The Politics of ExtinctionRemain a parasite OR become an Earth Warrior.

By Captain Paul Watson

We are at the present time living in an age of mass extinction. Each year, more than 20,000 unique species disappear from this planet forever. This represents more that two species per hour. Species extinction is the fuel that supports the ever increasing progress of the machinery of civilization.

Individual humans are for the most part insulated from the reality of species loss. Alienated from the natural world, guided by anthropocentric attitudes, the average human being is unaware and non-caring about the biological holocaust that is transpiring each and every day.

The facts are clear. More plant and animal species will go through extinction within our generation than have been lost thorough natural causes over the past two hundred million years. Our single human generation, that is, all people born between 1930 and 2010 will witness the complete obliteration of one third to one half of all the Earth’s life forms, each and every one of them the product of more than two billion years of evolution. This is biological meltdown, and what this really means is the end to vertebrate evolution on planet Earth.

Nature is under siege on a global scale. Biotopes, i.e., environmentally distinct regions, from tropical and temperate rainforests to coral reefs and coastal estuaries, are disintegrating in the wake of human onslaught.

The destruction of forests and the proliferation of human activity will remove more than 20 percent of all terrestrial plant species over the next fifty years. Because plants form the foundation for entire biotic communities, their demise will carry with it the extinction of an exponentially greater number of animal species — perhaps ten times as many faunal species for each type of plant eliminated.

Sixty-five million years ago, a natural cataclysmic event resulted in extinction of the dinosaurs. Even with a plant foundation intact, it took more than 100,000 years for faunal biological diversity to re-establish itself. More importantly, the resurrection of biological diversity assumes an intact zone of tropical forests to provide for new speciation after extinction. Today, the tropical rain forests are disappearing more rapidly than any other bio-region, ensuring that after the age of humans, the Earth will remain a biological, if not a literal desert for eons to come. The present course of civilization points to ecocide — the death of nature.

Like a run-a-way train, civilization is speeding along tracks of our own manufacture towards the stone wall of extinction. The human passengers sitting comfortably in their seats, laughing, partying, and choosing to not look out the window. Environmentalists are those perceptive few who have their faces pressed against the glass, watching the hurling bodies of plants and animals go screaming by. Environmental activists are those even fewer people who are trying desperately to break into the fortified engine of greed that propels this destructive specicidal juggernaut. Others are desperately throwing out anchors in an attempt to slow the monster down while all the while, the authorities, blind to their own impending destruction, are clubbing, shooting and jailing those who would save us all.

SHORT MEMORIES

Civilized humans have for ten thousand years been marching across the face of the Earth leaving deserts in their footprints. Because we have such short memories, we forgot the wonder and splendor of a virgin nature. We revise history and make it fit into our present perceptions.

For instance, are you aware that only two thousand years ago, the coast of North Africa was a mighty forest? The Phoenicians and the Carthaginians built powerful ships from the strong timbers of the region. Rome was a major exporter of timber to Europe. The temple of Jerusalem was built with titanic cedar logs, one image of which adorns the flag of Lebanon today. Jesus Christ did not live in a desert, he was a man of the forest. The Sumerians were renowned for clearing the forests of Mesopotamia for agriculture.

But the destruction of the coastal swath of the North African forest stopped the rain from advancing into the interior. Without the rain, the trees died and thus was born the mighty Sahara, sired by man and continued to grow southward at a rate of ten miles per year, advancing down the length of the continent of Africa.

And so will go Brazil. The precipitation off the Atlantic strikes the coastal rain forest and is absorbed and sent skyward again by the trees, falling further into the interior. Twelve times the moisture falls and twelve times it is returned to the sky — all the way to the Andes mountains. Destroy the coastal swath and desertify Amazonia — it is as simple as that. Create a swath anywhere between the coast and the mountains and the rains will be stopped. We did it before while relatively primitive. We learned nothing. We forgot.

So too, have we forgotten that walrus once mated and bred along the coast of Nova Scotia, that sixty million bison once roamed the North American plains. One hundred years ago, the white bear once roamed the forests of New England and the Canadian Maritime provinces. Now it is called the polar bear because that is where it now makes its last stand.

EXTINCTION IS DIFFICULT TO APPRECIATE

Gone forever are the European elephant, lion and tiger. The Labrador duck, giant auk, Carolina parakeet will never again grace this planet of ours. Lost for all time are the Atlantic grey whales, the Biscayan right whales and the Stellar sea cow. Our children will never look upon the California condor in the wild or watch the Palos Verde blue butterfly dart from flower to flower.

Extinction is a difficult concept to fully appreciate. What has been is no more and never shall be again. It would take another creation and billions of years to recreate the passenger pigeon. It is the loss of billions of years of evolutionary programming. It is the destruction of beauty, the obliteration of truth, the removal of uniqueness, the scarring of the sacred web of life

To be responsible for an extinction is to commit blasphemy against the divine. It is the greatest of all possible crimes, more evil than murder, more appalling than genocide, more monstrous than even the apparent unlimited perversities of the human mind. To be responsible for the complete and utter destruction of a unique and sacred life form is arrogance that seethes with evil, for the very opposite of evil is live. It is no accident that these two words spell out each other in reverse.

And yet, a reporter in California recently told me that “all the redwoods in California are not worth the life on one human being.” What incredible arrogance. The rights a species, any species, must take precedence over the life of an individual or another species. This is a basic ecological law. It is not to be tampered with by primates who have molded themselves into divine legends in their own mind. For each and every one of the thirty million plus species that grace this beautiful planet are essential for the continued well-being of which we are all a part, the planet Earth — the divine entity which brought us forth from the fertility of her sacred womb.

As a sea-captain I like to compare the structural integrity of the biosphere to that of a ship’s hull. Each species is a rivet that keeps the hull intact. If I were to go into my engine room and find my engineers busily popping rivets from the hull, I would be upset and naturally I would ask them what they were doing.

If they told me that they discovered that they could make a dollar each from the rivets, I could do one of three things. I could ignore them. I could ask them to cut me in for a share of the profits, or I could kick their asses out of the engine room and off my ship. If I was a responsible captain, I would do the latter. If I did not, I would soon find the ocean pouring through the holes left by the stolen rivets and very shortly after, my ship, my crew and myself would disappear beneath the waves.

And that is the state of the world today. The political leaders, i.e., the captains at the helms of their nation states, are ignoring the rivet poppers or they are cutting themselves in for the profits. There are very few asses being kicked out of the engine room of spaceship Earth.

With the rivet poppers in command, it will not be long until the biospheric integrity of the Earth collapses under the weight of ecological strain and tides of death come pouring in. And that will be the price of progress — ecological collapse, the death of nature, and with it the horrendous and mind numbing specter of massive human destruction.

And where does that leave us, dear reader? Do you intend to remain in your seat, oblivious to the impending destruction? Have you got you face pressed up against the window, watching the grim reapings of progress? Or are you engaged in throwing out anchors, sacrificing the materialistic pleasures of civilization and risking your all, that your planet and your children may live?

The choice is unique to this generation. Future generations will not have the chance and those that came before us did not have the vision nor the knowledge. It is up to us — you and I.

Remain a parasite OR become an Earth Warrior. Serve your Mother and prosper OR serve civilization and besmear yourself with the filth and guilt of ecocide.

]]>http://demo.veganshift.org/2015/07/06/the-politics-of-extinction-by-captain-paul-watson/feed/0Your Plate vs. The Planet – The Center for Biological Diversity Surveyed Thier Membership on 4.13.2015http://demo.veganshift.org/2015/04/13/your-plate-vs-the-planet-the-center-for-biological-diversity-surveyed-thier-membership-on-4-13-2015/
http://demo.veganshift.org/2015/04/13/your-plate-vs-the-planet-the-center-for-biological-diversity-surveyed-thier-membership-on-4-13-2015/#respondMon, 13 Apr 2015 04:00:00 +0000http://www.veganshift.org/media/your-plate-vs-the-planet-the-center-for-biological-diversity-surveyed-thier-membership-on-4-13-2015So excited to see an actual conservation advocacy group taking this issue seriously. They have followed the “meat industry” is the problem bandwagon in dipping their toe in the water to see how their membership is going to respond to getting real about what must be done on behalf of biodiversity. Although, we want to make it clear that, “meat” which has been the focus of thier survey, is not the primary problem they must really take on.

The primary problem is conciousness and empathy; ecological collapse is primarily due to egocentric thinking and entitlement as supreme beings on the planet. “Meat”, to too many people, actually means: “Steak” or “cow” not “fish”, not “chicken”. If I had a dollar for everytime someone said to me “I’m a vegetarian” while they were continuing to consume chicken and fish, or how many people I’ve said “I’m vegan- I eat plant products” and people ask – “Do you eat fish?” “Do you eat chicken?” or have had someone in a restaurant serve me chicken, cheese or eggs, we’d be already funded to deliver some serious educational campaigns across this country.

Furthermore, the first thing that happens when people quit “meat” is they replace it with “eggs, milk, cheese and yogurt (goat or cow)” etc. due to the pervasive livestock industry programming that “protein = animal products”, in an attempt to solve the problem. Eating more eggs and diary will not solve the myriad of problems we are facing with the animal-based agriculture. This isn’t a “meat industry” problem. This is a disconnected, animal usery based society problem based on old ignorance and a current denial that there are over 7 billion humans still inefficiently and polluting by living on animals with their cities, cars and freeways to support their culture. This path will maintain an insane system driving ecological collapse.

Thank you to the Center for Biological Diversity for your campiagn “Take the Exinction Off Your Plate”, and kindly make the subtle yet profoundly significant changes language changes to move to speaking about this in terms of “livestock and animal agriculture” instead of “meat”. The vegan community has been begging environmental organizations to get on board with addressing the most salient solution to our global crisis at human population 7 billion and growing that is literally driving our biodiversity extinction and ecological collapse and especially for the 70 billion land animals and trillions of sea animals being unnecessarily and unsustainably slaughtered every year and continues to increase with our population. Please make an unequivocal declaration that a stock free plant-based agriculture and diet is the solution that can reverse the crisis we are currently spiralling in.

Here is a letter from Nov 2011 to Bill McKibben of 350.org that you may find of interest in our efforts to collaborate with environmental groups and bring them on the path that of this major topic has been irresponsibly ommitted from the discussion for so long.

You may remember me: my name is Eriyah Flynn, and I have traveled to stand beside you, and the many activists in this room, in WDC two times in as many months in protest of the Keystone XL pipeline. The Columbus activist community, including Alec Johnson, Bob Fitrakis, Harvey Wasserman, Jason Box and Andrew Sidesinger, and many others can attest that I have been a long time, ardent, engaged and committed environmental and social justice activist. I am also a US Air Force Veteran and yet, most importantly, while doing all of this for over a decade, I have also been a vegan. Because being vegan is the LEAST I can do as a political statement of justice and non-violence towards the weakest among us who are at our mercy, and the MOST effective single discipline that can be done to reverse the path of insanity of unsustainable behaviors our species has waged against our planetary home. Being vegan does not require risk of arrest, can be extremely healthy, affordable, and can be done by everyone, NOW.

Livestock production is the 10,000 year stain on humanity’s code of so called civilized behavior, and as our population has ballooned over the last 80 years from 2 billion in 1930, to over 7 billion people in 2011; According to two reports, “Livestock’s Long Shadow” (UNFAO) and “Livestock and Climate Change” (World Watch Institute) Livestock production is now THE LEADING human cause of pollution, deforestation and ecocide causing climate change, vastly exceeding world transport. We have known this since 2006. Ecological scientists have been sounding the alarm that we have entered the 6th great extinction period on Earth. You spoke of severe energy and water scarcity and the impending loss of productive crops. Based on these facts, a vegan in a hummer does more to save the planet than a non-vegan on bicycle. The continued omission of these facts is absolute negligence contributing to our collective peril. The vegan community has been waiting since 2006 (and before) for the environmental community to acknowledge the most basic scientific empirical fact that consuming lower on the food chain is the most efficient way to live, as well as a hemorrhaging social justice issue desperate to be recognized since the times of Socrates.

If reducing the negative impacts of climate change is truly your salient objective and the situation is as dire as you depict, the environmental community must finally make the intellectually honest commitment and demonstrate the courage to get the elephant of veganism in the room, on the table of awareness, clearly, in the campaigns your organization (and other environmental, conservationist and social justice organizations) commissions going forward. A survey of your organization’s membership would likely reveal significant numbers of vegans who also support this moral/ethical obligation and are equally confounded by this continued, weak inconsistency. Embarrassingly, climate change deniers wield this fact as leverage to marginalize our unified environmental sustainability cause and charge “hypocrite”. Gain legitimacy for our mission and make a pledge to go vegan, make it fun and issue a “go vegan” challenge to your membership. I am available for support, and I have enclosed with this letter, several documents that will assist you in this process (BTW- they are contained in an algae based plastic binder made by a local company called Univenture), and I have provided links below to these resources as well within an electronic document that will be forwarded to you directly.

My parting mental picture is an analogy of abolition: If the animals in today’s system of exploitation were the Jews in Hitler’s concentration camps, or the slaves of our nation’s plantation owners, which side of history would you want to be on? The side of the cowards, whiners and excusitarians who were too afraid or apathetic to make a stand, or would you choose the side of the courageous that dared pull up their boots, show some discipline and urgently challenged the most powerful and dominant forces of injustice, violence and death?

I think you and I know the answer to that. They are not “a condiment” Mr. McKibben, they are individuals who deserve to be free of exploitation, and as you have so cogently and eloquently detailed in your plea for action, you know there is a lot more at stake than just our palate’s preference. Lead as I know you can. The earthlings who share this planet are counting on you to live up to your potential.

Love life, live vegan!

Eriyah Flynn

Founder

Vegan Shift

“Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, Is it politic? Vanity asks the question, Is it popular? But conscience asks the question, Is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him that it is right.” Dr Martin Luther King Jr., 1929-1968

Transition Action Plan:

Pledge to go vegan

Issue a “go vegan” challenge; ask membership to pledge to at least try it for 30 days.

In all of your correspondences end with a statement that the most basic scientific empirical fact is that consuming lower on the food chain (plants) is the most efficient way to live, that the present demand for livestock products is the leading cause of the energy consumption and environmental pollution, deforestation and ecocide and that a vegan shift would also alleviate many of the social justice issues we are suffering

Link your website and correspondence to websites that offer vegan transition tips, recipes and provide more detail on the importance (see links below)

Enclosed:

The Simple Solution is Getting the Elephant on the Table

https://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&&note_id=70604078289

Letter from a Vegan World- Joanna Lucas of Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary

http://www.peacefulprairie.org/outreach/letter.pdf

Animal Rights The Abolitionist Approach by Gary Francione

http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/media/pdf/ARAA_Pamphlet.pdf

Blood and Soil: Lierre Keith, Michael Pollan, and the Trouble with Locavore Politics by John Sanbonmatsu

If I ever wanted to be worthy of living, it was to be as a person who lived with integrity, courage, honor and consistently with my values for truth, liberty, justice, respect, dignity, equality, empathy, kindness, compassion and peace for all earthlings. I will never be able to undo what I have unconsciously and unquestioningly participated in for far too long as I was developing in the non-vegan, discriminative, deceptive, disconnected programming culture I inherited. Though
I am viscerally saddened in discovering the magnitude of unnecessary, horrific and violent reality that is at every foundation of humanity’s present course of soul killing, animal killing, world killing, self-fulfilling, self-destruct, what I can do now is make a stand to change the course of that world for the direction that I would see us have. I have never felt more alive, driven or committed to a life of purpose and passion as I have since I unplugged from the marketing matrix and awakened from the trance of currently dominant American culture of dysfunctional and misdirected priorities obsessed with blind consumerism, materialism, entertainment, sports, celebrity culture, and “what’s in it for me” mentality. It is a powerful thing to know I am not alone on this mission, that there are in fact millions of vegans moving this world in the most awesomely epic odyssey for human consciousness andadvancement towards peace ever undertaken in our history.

It is a beautiful thing to know that no matter one’s family history, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, ability, career, etc. they can decide to live vegan while concurrently pursuing the rest of their life’s dreams, purpose, passion, ambition or cause. I have found and strive determined to fulfill my destiny to empower a rapid world vegan shift. Though everyone dies, not everyone really lives. Dare to see the invisible, feel the intangible, and achieve the impossible by breaking the chains of fear and ego-driven apathy, ignorance, injustice,
indifference, privilege, entitlement, culture, tradition, greed, corporate
interests, habit or addiction, and begin living with an eco-driven compass of compassion and nonviolence for the people, for the planet and for the animals.
“If not you, who? If not now, when?” Hillel
Join us.